518 SEMINOLE INDIANS OF FLORIDA. 
ants of one can reach those of the others by water. The canoe is what 
is known as a ‘dugout,” made from the cypress log. 
Fire making.—The art of fire making by simple friction is now, I be- 
lieve, neglected among the Seminole, unless at the starting of the 
sacred fire for the Green Corn Dance. <A fire is now kindled either by 
the common Ma-tci (matches) of the civilized man or by steel and flint, 
powder ard paper. ‘Tom Tiger” showed me how he builds a fire when 
away from home. He held, crumpled between the thumb and fore- 
finger of the left hand, a bit of paper. In the folds of tke paper he 
poured from his powder horn a small quantity of gunpowder. Close 
beside the paper he held also a piece of flint. Striking this flint with 
a bit of steel and at the same time giving to the left hand a quick up- 
ward movement, he ignited the powder and paper. From this he soon 
made a fire among the pitch pine chippings he had preyiously prepared. 
Preparation of skins.—I did not learn just how the Indians dress deer 
skins, but I observed that they had in use and for sale the dricd skin, 
with the hair of the animal left on it; the bright yellow buckskin, very 
soft and strong; and also the dark red buckskin, which evidently had 
passed, in part of its preparation, through smoke. I was told that the 
brains ef the animal serve an important use in the skin dressing proc- 
ess. The accompanying sketch shows a simple frame in use for stretch- 
ing and drying the skin. (Fig. 74.) 

Fic. 74. Hide stretcher. 
ORNAMENTAL ARTS. 
In my search for evidence of the working of the art instinct proper, 
i. e., in ornamental or fine art, I found but little to add to what has been 

